Espaillat, Avila Chevalier trade blows in combative debate

Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s case is straightforward: He has the experience and the record serving the 13th Congressional District, which covers upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx.

“I have been in the neighborhood all along during our most difficult times,” he said during Tuesday night’s debate on NY1.

But his much younger opponent, Darializa Avila Chevalier, says the status-quo isn’t working.

“I am someone who has been organizing for over 14 years in our community,” she said. “And I have to ask: Have things gotten better in our community under our current leadership?”

The debate was combative, with much of the focus on Avila Chevalier’s past tweets, which she said she deeply regrets.

Both candidates attacked each other for the millions of dollars in outside spending on the race. Avila Chevalier tied Espaillat’s fundraising to his support for Israel.

“He is someone who has taken over $670,000 from AIPAC, all while voting to send our tax dollars to a country that is enacting a genocide,” she said.

In response, Espaillat condemned what he called war crimes in Gaza, then called attention to Avila Chevalier’s attendance at a controversial pro-Palestinian protest on Oct. 8, 2023.

“I believe in a two-state solution, and she doesn’t believe in the existence of Israel. In fact, the day after the Oct. 7 attack, she went to celebrate,” Espaillat said.

“I am just shocked by the dehumanizing language that was just used. I would never celebrate the death of any human being,” Avila Chevalier responded. “I was there at that rally on Oct. 8 because I remembered what happened in 2014. And I knew that the reaction would be an outsized reaction that would cause the death of thousands upon thousands of people.”

Some of Chevalier’s old tweets trashed mainstream Democrats like former Vice President Kamala Harris.

During the cross-examination portion of the debate, Espaillat asked, “Will you publicly now apologize to Kamala Harris?”

Chevalier said yes.

“To Vice President Kamala Harris, I sincerely apologize because you did not deserve that language,” she said. “And I would have loved to have seen a Black woman president.”

Espaillat also took a swipe at Avila Chevalier’s work as a doctoral student.

“This is not a PhD program. This is government. And you need experience,” Espaillat said.

Avila Chevalier replied: “I just think it’s really interesting that a PhD program is somehow considered less rigorous than government.”

She said, in fact, she freed immigrants from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention through her organizing work.

As for her old social media posts calling to abolish police, Avila Chevalier spoke of the need for violence prevention programs.

“I know that we will not get rid of police overnight,” she said. “That was never the goal. The goal is to make sure that we get to a place as a society where we do feel safe.”